Just to be clear...

I think I ought to clarify something I wrote in an earlier post. I referred to my intended method of setting up gardens as "fire and forget" and likened it to guerilla gardening. Ok, not exactly the most apt and accurate way of describing things. For starters, it's not exactly "fire and forget"-- any garden requires at least some tending, even if it is only ("only"?! hahaha...) weeding and pruning and such. And what's more, guerilla gardening isn't about just throwing in some plants and forgetting them, seedbombs notwithstanding.

Pilot Project

One of the activities the Harvest Stewards program will undertake (I hope!) is the creation of garden plots for those who wish to grow produce for sharing with others but don't have the time, inclination, experience or other sort of wherewithal to have gotten a garden together already. I don't know how feasible this will really be, so I have twisted the arm of a good buddy of mine and he's letting me use him and a little bit of his yard to pilot this project. This experiment will test the feasibility of "fire and forget" garden plotting as well as the scalability of such a project in an economic dimension. I have to think that, in principle, the "fire and forget" path can work, as is evidenced by the fairly recent trend of guerilla gardening.

The economic outlay per plot is, as yet, unrealized, for the obvious reason that I've not yet completed one. But I've begun collecting the stuff I'll need to set it up. First in my basket of stuff to foist upon my friend was a string trellis ($4). I've used these before and they are so quick and easy to hang. The next item reflects the need to strike a balance between ease of use and cost. I want these plantings to be water-wise, so I'll be using drip irrigation; ideally I'd install a really nice dual-outlet timer- so that the gardener doesn't have to worry about watering at all once a suitable program is established- but the cost of such multiplied over only a few garden plantings gets to be prohibitively expensive. So I've gone with something a little less expensive and a little less convenient: one of those mechanical tap timers ($15).

Next on the list are hose, fittings and drip emitters.

What this is all about.

Here's the idea: we get folks to commit to donate a portion of their garden harvest to local food banks, homeless shelters, drop-in centers, etc. Also, we encourage local churches to devote some portion of theire facilities' grounds to a garden whose produce will go to needy folks. The idea springs in part from my love of gardening, but also from Christ's message in the Gospel of Matthew (25:45) wherein he called us to serve "the least of these". How appropriate, then, to share one's own produce, and how appropriate indeed for well-landed churches to strive to be better stewards of some of that with which they have been entrusted- namely the land itself.

At the moment I write this, the Harvest Stewards program, as such, does not exist. It is just an idea as yet. Think of it as an ungerminated seed... It's not yet a legal entity, nor is it yet a 501(c)(3) charitable organization. But in the coming days, weeks and months, I hope for this to change. And, for now anyway, this is where you can see how this seed of an idea grows.